Visual Artist Sara Graham

Sara Graham, Canard Development Group, installation view

Contemporary Toronto-based artist Sara Graham does not limit her work to one particular visual discipline. Her recent performative installation called Canard Development Group was featured in Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche this September. Her piece related to the city’s urban development issues, such as the recent condo boom, and Graham’s concern that the majority of discussions occurring about these developments are negative. In this piece, Graham wanted instead to inspire solutions to the issues these developments raise.

CDG consisted of a colourful mobile sales office that existed “off the grid”, playfully and provocatively attracting and engaging with participants. Straddling the line between fact and fiction, it was her intention to spark the audience into critical thinking about the city we live in, prompting them to ask: Is this real? And what would happen if we actually did this?

Regarding Nuit Blanche, Graham felt the experience provided Torontonians with a new outlook on the city as they navigated with fresh eyes through different Toronto areas

Graham is the recipient of a 2007 Visual Arts Grant for an individual artist, and Toronto Arts Council (TAC) was pleased to support her work. Sara is now in the process of consolidating her previous work but also exploring and researching her new project, Citymovement, which has been five years in conception. In it, she explores current issues and aspects of the design and depiction of cities while blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, urban design and geography. Citymovement will allow her to continue in the direction of examining and documenting how we shape -- and are shaped by -- city systems, through the production of a series of drawings and experimental prototypes that explore the boundaries between art and design.

Having lived and worked in various Canadian cities, Graham’s ultimate decision to choose Toronto as her ideal home was because she “really wanted to engage in a city that was in itself already engaged”. She truly appreciates Toronto’s vibrant arts community and the public participation that takes place in the city.

For more information about CDG or Graham’s practice, please visit www.canarddevelopmentgroup.com and www.citymovement.ca.

Cara Williams - Freelance writer

 

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